İBB Chairman Mevlut Uysal, who made a speech in the opening ceremony, said, "Our shopkeeper friends here have suffered from a long-term difficulty, but I hope there will be no difficulties with infrastructure here in the next 20-30 years. We will have prevented the entry of heavy-tonnage vehicles to this avenue. There will be no entry of vehicles other than necessary situations".

Speaking at the opening, Governor Vasip Şahin said, "Perhaps our citizens and tradesmen have suffered, but I hope it will be worth the trouble. İBB has done a thorough study, especially in order to avoid some disturbances that may arise after this and give a very detailed work on the substructure in order to meet the new needs. I thank our mayor and everyone involved. This has been a new-year gift from our Metropolitan Municipality".

The electric nostalgic tram, one of the symbols of Istanbul, made its first trip between Taksim and Tunel in 1914, the year World War I started, but in 1961, it gave way to trolleybuses by a government decision. In the 1990s, after the restoration of the wagons in the warehouses, the tram resumed its trips after a 30-year break. Today it serves 2,500 passengers a day on the 1870-meter line between Taksim and Tunel.